"Unfortunately we're not finding the net, not taking it to that next level. We're letting teams hang around."

Attendance was 4,918.

The Sound Tigers have lost three in a row by one goal after a 7-1-1-1 stretch.

They played with essentially their regular lineup Tuesday despite the tentative end of the NHL lockout. The New York Islanders should be calling for several players by the end of the week.

But Bridgeport lost two defensemen in the third period Tuesday. Aaron Ness took a stick to the mouth early in the period, losing several teeth. Nathan McIver left the ice with four minutes left in discomfort after a hit along the boards.

That might have helped Kundratek, the former Connecticut Whale defenseman, find an open path to the net to backhand the game-winner under Kevin Poulin's pad.

Bridgeport had a few shifts that pinned Hershey deep, that forced icings, that led the Bears to call their time out late in the second. The Bears and Dany Sabourin (35 saves) withstood them.

"It was one of those games -- I looked, it was 9 o'clock, and it was the start of the second period," Bridgeport coach Scott Pellerin said. "We weren't able to sustain any of that momentum we got early in the periods, whether it was icing calls, time outs, a couple of times the glass had to be fixed."

Johan Sundstrom finished a rush 3:39 into the game, the sixth time in seven games Bridgeport has scored in the first four minutes. Hershey scored twice in 45 seconds to take the lead before Colin McDonald's redirection tied it with 2:57 left in the first.

Bridgeport took a 3-2 lead in the third; Brandon DeFazio jammed home a loose puck in the crease after Sabourin stopped a McDonald breakaway with 12:11 left in regulation. Evan Barlow tied it off a Jeff Taffe feed 32 seconds after that.

Referees Graham Skilliter and Geno Binda awarded the Bears no power plays, only the second time in 12 seasons that Bridgeport hasn't needed the penalty kill. But the Sound Tigers went 0-for-5 on their own power play.